High-caliber professionals receive endless requests for their time through boards, meeting groups, talks, conferences, and the individual requests from colleagues/friends. So what makes your request stand out? There are two key ways in which to approach this:

1. Identify the people who find your organizations cause/mission incredibly compelling. For instance if you are working in food insecurity focus on people with a passion for food, sustainability, or both. An ideal example would be an executive at KIND, Aramark, Terracycles. This takes a lot of in-depth research, the more specific you can be in how your organization aligns with their interests and goals the more likely they are to join. Furthermore this is not a cold email ask

Before I list a procedure - here is the second focus.

2. Ensure that you are able to clearly define what distinguishes your organizations from others in the space and how their experience will be relevant but will also push/challenge them since they are charting new territory.

Steps:

1. identify the appropiate individuals 2. understand how to position the ask 3. find a mutual connection for an introduction 4. connect with potential board member in person and build a personal connection 5. continue to correspond with them and essentially showcase what makes your business/organization unique 6. Make the ask

- Clearly this isn't a 1 day or week process so be prepared to spend more time in direct correlation with how high caliber members you are looking to recruit

My background: Over the past few years I co-founded a non-profit which uses tech to rescue ensure extra food from events goes to supporting communities in need. I then transitioned to a chairman of the board role and recruited a strong advisor board. At LinkedIn i spent a significant amount of time helping non-profits fill executive level roles by curating and screening candidates. Additionally we worked to help organizations fill board seats.

Happy to set up a follow up call to dive into specific tactics and further explain the process, workshop your org.